Reading Comprehension Teaching Resources
Explore printable worksheets, digital activities and more to teach reading comprehension strategies and skills in your elementary classroom. Created by teachers, for teachers, the teaching resources in this collection are curriculum-aligned and have undergone a careful review by a member of our expert teaching team.
You'll find editable versions to easily differentiate your instruction for individual students, plus a variety of options to make lesson planning easier this school year so your students will be able to identify the main idea of a text, draw inferences, remember key details and more.
New to teaching this portion of the English curriculum or just looking for fresh and engaging ways to teach reading comprehension strategies? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Is Reading Comprehension?
We'll start at the beginning! Reading comprehension is a skill that's hard to overestimate in terms of its importance for elementary students to develop.
Defined as the ability to understand and interpret written language, reading comprehension involves the process of decoding text, extracting meaning from it, and then integrating that meaning with prior knowledge and understanding.
Not only does comprehension comprise the ability to recognize and understand individual words, but it also involves the ability to recognize patterns and relationships within sentences and paragraphs.
On top of that is the ability to make inferences and draw conclusions based on the information presented.
Yes, there's a lot packed in there!
How to Teach Reading Comprehension
To develop reading comprehension, students need a variety of language skills such as vocabulary knowledge, grammar and syntax, as well as cognitive processes such as attention, memory and critical thinking.
So how do you teach reading comprehension? Like many of those foundational skills we teach in elementary grades, this isn't something kids learn in a single lesson, unit or even one school year.
Teaching reading comprehension is going to stretch from kindergarten and first grade all the way through the rest of a child's academic career (at least on the pre-college levels).
That said, here are some activities to make use of as you approach teaching reading comprehension as an elementary teacher:
- Pre-Reading Activities — Brainstorming, KWL charts, prediction exercises and other "pre-reading" activities will help your students activate their prior knowledge, build background knowledge and set a purpose for reading. These are all key to developing their comprehension.
- During-Reading Strategies — Teaching your students to ask questions, summarize, visualize and make connections will give students the know-how they need to monitor their comprehension as they read.
- Post-Reading Activities — Reading comprehension doesn't stop when kids get to the last page of a text. It's only just beginning. That's why it's important to make sure your lesson plans include activities that help students deepen their understanding of the text and develop critical thinking skills. Examples of post-reading activities that can help build these skills include discussions, debates and written responses.
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Super Six Reading Comprehension Question Cards
Help students with six different comprehension skills with this set of super 6 comprehension task cards and mats.
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Plant Adaptations - Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Read and learn about unusual plants and their adaptations with a pack of printable reading comprehension worksheets.
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Finding the Main Idea - Graphic Organizer Templates
Teach students how to find the main idea of a text using one of these one-page graphic organizers.
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Reading Comprehension Worksheet - American Flag Facts
Boost reading comprehension skills and knowledge of American flag facts with a printable reading comprehension worksheet.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Identifying Author's Purpose
Help students identify the author's purpose when reading with this set of comprehension task cards.
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Author's Purpose Anchor Chart
A poster highlighting the three main reasons an author writes a piece of text - to persuade, to inform, to entertain.
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Our Solar System - Interactive and Printable Cloze Reading Activity
Practice and review concepts associated with the solar system using a cloze passage.
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4th Grade Writing Worksheets: Tornado Text-Based Writing
Enhance your students' comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills using 4th Grade writing worksheets and a high-interest reading passage about Tornadoes.
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Soccer vs. Football -Differentiated Paired Passage Worksheets
Differentiate reading instruction with nonfiction texts, compare and contrast activities, and response to text writing opportunities.
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Inspirational Woman Profile: Brooke Boney – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension task to use when learning about Brooke Boney.
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Cause and Effect - Sentence Sort Worksheet
A worksheet and answer sheet to use when teaching students the cause and effect comprehension strategy.
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Summarizing Fiction Task Cards
Guide students along their summarizing journey with this set of Fiction texts on task cards for students to summarize.
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13 Colonies Reading Passages - New England, Southern, and Middle Colonies
Build reading comprehension skills and knowledge of the New England, Southern, and Middle colonies with printable comprehension worksheets.
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Character Anchor Charts - Traits, Feelings, and Appearances
A set of 3 posters depicting words and phrases that can be used to describe a character traits, feelings and appearance.
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Free Character Traits List
Teach your students to analyze characters more effectively by providing them with a list of character traits.
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Amelia Earhart Constructed Response Worksheet
Use this passage, second grade writing prompt, and worksheet to help students write a constructed response paragraph about Amelia Earhart.
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The Pony Express - Comprehension Passage Worksheet
Teach your students how to write a constructed response paragraph and integrate grade level Social studies concepts with a free Pony Express worksheet and ten-question comprehension assessment.
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What's the Connection? Worksheet
Use this reading skills worksheet to help your students learn about the types of text connections: text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world.
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3-2-1 Text Reflection Template
Quickly assess your students' comprehension after reading a fictional text with this 3-2-1 reflection activity.
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Recognize Cause and Effect Poster
A poster highlighting how to recognize cause and effect when reading a piece of text.
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Reciprocal Teaching - Role Bookmarks
Remind students of their reciprocal teaching roles during guided reading groups with this set of 4 bookmarks.
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Summarizing a Story Graphic Organizers
Help students remember the fundamentals of summarizing a story with this set of fun graphic organizers.
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Nonfiction Text Features Teaching Slides
Explore the features of nonfiction texts with your students using this detailed and age-appropriate slideshow for elementary school reading lessons.
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Nonfiction Text Features Study Guide
Download this list of text feature examples to teach your students about the purpose of these important textual elements.
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Making Inferences With Pictures Worksheet
Guide your students to use pictures to make inferences with this reading worksheet.
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OREO® Opinion Writing Poster
Help students remember the structure of opinion texts with this fun OREO® acronym.
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Executive Branch Worksheet Pack
Learn about the leaders and responsibilities of the Executive Branch of the United States government with printable comprehension worksheets.
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Henry Hudson Comprehension Worksheet
Discover famous explorers like Henry Hudson with printable reading comprehension activities.
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Free Cause and Effect Graphic Organizer
Practice identifying cause and effect with a blank cause and effect graphic organizer.
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Henry Ford Mini Book
Provide students with cross-curricular social studies and reading instruction with a printable Henry Ford for Kids mini book.
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Human Histories: World Explorers – Comprehension Worksheet
A free comprehension worksheet paired with an informational text about world explorers.
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Reading Comprehension Strategies Anchor Charts
Provide young readers with concrete examples of reading strategies with a set of 18 ready-made reading anchor charts.
- Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- Reading Comprehension Templates
- Reading Comprehension Posters
- Reading Comprehension Games
- Reading Comprehension for Pre-K
- Reading Comprehension for Kindergarten
- Reading Comprehension for 1st Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 2nd Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 3rd Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 4th Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 5th Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 6th Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 7th Grade